Agent Skills: Skill Creator

Skill Creator

Principles

• Concise: Only add context AI doesn't have.
• Progressive disclosure: Metadata → SKILL.md → Resources
• Appropriate freedom: High for flexible, low for fragile tasks.

Structure

skill-name/
├── SKILL.md (required)
└── Optional: scripts/, references/, assets/

• SKILL.md:
  • name: lowercase, hyphens, max 64 chars
  • description: max 1024 chars, third person, what + when
  • compatibility: opencode
  • Body: under 500 lines
• Naming: Gerund form (processing-pdfs, analyzing-data)
• Description: Extract PDF text. Use when working with PDFs.

Formatting

• 80 chars guideline: Exceptions: URLs, code, tables
• Paths: Forward slashes (scripts/file.py)
• Terminology: Consistent throughout

Patterns

Progressive disclosure:

## Quick start

[Instructions]

## Advanced

See [ADVANCED.md](ADVANCED.md)

Workflows with checklist:

- [ ] Analyze
- [ ] Validate
- [ ] Execute

• Feedback loops: Validate → fix → repeat
• Templates: ALWAYS use: [template] or Adapt as needed: [...]
• Examples: Provide input/output pairs

Anti-Patterns

❌ Windows paths, vague descriptions, many options ❌ Time-sensitive info, nested references

Development

1. Complete task, notice repeated context
2. Create skill with AI
3. Test, iterate

Template

---
name: skill-name
description: What it does. Use when [trigger].
license: UNLICENSE
compatibility: opencode
---

# Skill Name

[Instructions]

Checklist:

• [ ] Description under 80 chars, third person
• [ ] Body under 500 lines, 80 char guideline
• [ ] Consistent terminology
• [ ] References one level deep
• [ ] Tested with real usage